The best contact centers continually work on the root causes of turnover. There are many common causes of turnover, such as insufficient development opportunities, pace of effort required, feeling of not being appreciated, the list goes on. What is most important in retention efforts is determining what is important to each individual employee on your team.

One powerful tool in improving retention and deepening employee engagement is the “stay interview.” Dick Finnegan, author of The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention, describes a stay interview as “a structured discussion a leader conducts with each individual employee to learn the specific actions she must take to strengthen that employee’s engagement and retention with the organization.” I’ve found stay interviews to be informative and inspiring — and they underscore a key principle: retention is an important leadership responsibility.

Excerpt from Contact Center Management on Fast Forward by Brad Cleveland.